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Here are my personal responses to the questions I asked you to answer:

1) Your name, including a nickname if there's something else you'd like to be called in class:
James Jesson, but I go by Jamie.

2) Where you're from:
San Francisco, where I lived until I was 23 (with some of that time in Berkeley). I've also lived in Tacoma, WA, Phoenix, AZ, and Houston, TX.

3) Your college and major/minor:
English

4) Your career goal/future plans:
English professor, or maybe a job in publishing.

5) Whether you have taken any other rhetoric or English classes at UT. If so, name the class(es):
Yes, too many to list.

6) What you would like to get out of this class:
I'd like to see everyone become proficient, confident writers, hopefully by writing about interesting topics. I also hope to learn more about the readings and music we're looking at. Everyone in the class should have insights about the material that will help me learn many new things along with everyone else.

7) Favorite music artist/album:
#1 favorite is probably Talking Heads, More Songs About Buildings and Food. #2 is Jonathan Richman, Jonathan Goes Country, although I like pretty much anything by him. I also like anything by Lou Reed. And I like old country (Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton) and '80s/early '90s hip-hop (Public Enemy, Eric B. and Rakim, Tribe Called Quest). I don't listen to much new music, but I like some of the catchy songs by people like Destiny's Child and Justin Timberlake.

8) Favorite movie:
Repo Man, I guess. And Major League. Maybe Bull Durham is the best baseball movie of all time, but people really underrate Major League, which is to Charlie Sheen as Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is to Keanu Reeves--no two better roles will ever come along for that pair of actors.

9) Favorite food:
I could live on burritos from San Francisco's Mission District. Somehow this little corner of the world has perfected the burrito, and no one else has been able to duplicate their success. But since I'm in Austin now, the taco is an almost-worthy substitute.

10) Favorite book:
A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley.

11) Your hobbies/interests:
School takes up most of my time. Outside of school I like following current events, watching news shows like Washington Week and The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and reading political blogs. I cook with my wife. And I'm trying to learn French so I can read Proust's Remembrance of Things Past (which could be a runner-up for favorite book) in French. I should be done with that in about ten years.

12) Favorite TV show:
These days, The Wire. I also really like Washington Week, as I said in #11.